Okay, folks, from a quick scan through the threads I haven't seen this exact problem. My apologies if I am wrong.

I've had an Acekard 2 for almost four months now (got it around the end of June). It's been working pretty well, but I've always known that there was the potential for the thing dying on me. Well, it has apparently happened.

While I was browsing through the walkthrough available for Persona 2: Innocent Sin, the system locked up on me. I thought it may have been the text viewer just messing up, so I restart. It comes back up all the way to the menu, but before it starts displaying, it accesses the MicroSD (4GB Transcend Class 6), but never stops. Rather non-plussed at this point, I copied all the stuff off the MicroSD, which still reads just fine on my computer. I then proceeded to use the Panasonic formatter to reformat, and threw a new copy of the firmware (and my games) on there.

Same deal. Constant and consistent access of the MicroSD without end.

So, I go for one of my older MicroSDs (2GB Kingston), but it does the same thing as well. I'm guessing at this point that it's the Acekard 2, as that one works just fine in my R4.

So, anyone seen this? And is there any way to fix it without sending it back? I find it strange that it's able to load up the skin for the firmware, yet not be able to proceed from there. Makes me wonder if proper contact is being made on all pins of the MicroSD. Regardless, I'm not sure I'm too keen on the Acekards anymore, as they just don't seem very dependable overall compared to my R4, which I've been using for almost 2 years now.

as peter said its a dead card, the way you described it puts no doubt in my mind. some last 2 days, some a few weeks, others a few months. it all depended on the amount of use they got, but all were a boot-up away from being dead. hopefully you purchased it from a good shop which will replace it as all shops know about the bad batch problem. if your shop will not, and only after you have tried to get it replaced or your money refunded, contact acekard@gmail.com and inform them of not only the situation but ever step you took to get a replacement.

if you do get a replacement from your shop and they send you another 2.0 it has the risk for the same problem. all high volume dealers should by now have returned the older lot for the 2.1. you won't have this issue on the 2.1.

Okay, appreciate that. I was kind of hoping I'd dodge the issue, but much like my Xbox 360, I suppose I knew it was inevitable at some point.

I got mine from Real Hot Stuff, and I was looking at their return policy, which seems to be a 90-day warranty. I may go ahead and ping them anyway to see if I can get a replacement. It'd certainly be nice. Although I wonder if it would be worth it to buy an Acekard RPG, what with the built-in NAND flash.

i have both, i love my rpg. build quality is very nice and having 1 gig for either dev or on the go gaming is nice. the nand is delicate so be careful you use it correctly. don't shut off the ds while its writing a save for example. gelu's firmware has many rpg improvements that you would enjoy, expecially if you have a 3-in-1.

I also bought an Acekard 2 from DealExtreme around the end of June. For the past few months, it was working fine and i thought i was lucky i didn't get a defective one.

However, recently, i started getting a listing of '0f0f0f0f' appearing on the upperscreen while trying to load a game and then the 2 screens will just freeze. It was getting more and more frequent and today, i tried restarting my DS more than 20 times but to no avail. Sometimes, the DS won't even detect the flashcart anymore.

I've tried formatting my MicroSD and using another one, updating Acekard 2 firmware but it's still not working.

Did anyone encouter the same problem before?

I've reported it to DealExtreme, hopefully i'll be able to get a replacement or a refund.

So, here's a question: did anyone ever track down exactly WHY these went bad? It has to be something they did wrong with the PCB design, leaving out a critical part or something. Maybe it's some sort of latchup issue with some of their chips? Beats me.

Anyway, I should be back in commission sometime next week. In the meantime, the ol' R4 has proven more than adequate, although even that hasn't been necessary considering the amount of time I've sunk into the retail cart of Castlevania.